Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Triggered pulled - Active LFR-1100's are on order!

Mojo - what is your source set up - do you do most everything from Spotify? Do you have a DAC?

Thanks for asking, Craig and hopefully providing some advice.

In my main room, my sources are a PS3, Amazon Firestick, a Google Chrome and a Yammie cassette deck. All that connects through my Onk which supports 192KHz/24-bit formats. The majority of my listening is via Spotify Premium via the Firestick. The Onk has Spotify Connect but I've never been able to make it work. BTW, I notice Spotify via the Firestick is better sounding than via Chrome and PS3.

I don't have an external DAC. I've never used one and frankly don't know what I don't know. Total noob.

You might want to check out some of the Streamer/DAC units on the market. You would use the CD input on the Onk, and basically, have CD quality.

Here is a good place to start -

https://www.audioadvisor.com/products.asp?dept=414

Thank you, Craig. I will educate myself on them.

How are they different than a Firestick 4K? BTW, I just discovered the Firestick 4K goes up to 96KHz which really is 48KHz better than it needs to be anyway.

A dedicated audio streamer with DAC is going to have a much lower noise floor and a much more robust power supply. You will get better bass and more detail. Your fire stick is still great for movies, but if you want all that music can deliver, feed your system the best.

The Firestick 4K does not publish a noise spec. Now a good question is, what should the maximum noise spec of a source be to minimize the noise of my entire system? For example, there's no point in a -120 dB S/N figure for a source if the figures for the Onk and ADA are lower.

I really need to understand all this better. Thanks for raising awareness.

""For example, there's no point in a 120 dB THD+N figure for a source if the figures for the Onk and ADA are lower.""

Actually, you want a lower noise floor than the Onk or ADA, if you can do it.

Looking at the Cambridge Audio AXC35 CD player, it is spec'ed to -93 dB S/N.

The Yamaha CD-2100 has a spec of -116 dB.

It is not a subtle difference between the 2, and it is doubtful the Amazon unit can match the Cambridge.

There's a lot to look into.

The Firestick 4K hasn't been independently tested but the Chromecast Audio was and it was extremely respectable. I remember paying $35 Canadian for it. The Firestick sounds better.

I have an option in the Audio settings of my Onk called Music Optimizer. With Spotify via PS3 or Chromecast Audio or Chromecast Video, I have the option to turn that on. It sounds much better on than off. With the Firestick 4K, I cannot access it - it's grayed out as if to say you can't get any better.

Craig ... how about something like the AV8805 preprocessor ... 24bit/192kHz decode ... (guess this is the best they send ... since the DACs are all 32bit)

Do we really need a dedicated Streamer??

BTW it's less then some of the streamers on that page ... and comes with a few extra functions